Attributed to Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741)

Details
Attributed to Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741)

The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

black lead, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watermark device in an oval, ink gall damages
11 3/8 x 7 7/8in. (287 x 200mm.)
Provenance
Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364).
An unidentified collector's mark '&' (not in Lugt).
Exhibited
Vassar College, 1963, no. 34.
Duke University, 1966, no. 5, pl. 3.

Lot Essay

The draughtsmanship, particularly the heads drawn with two lines crossing the centre and the use of wash in very regular strokes along the outlines of the figures, is close to that of some of Pellegrini's drawings in Düsseldorf, A. Bettagno, Disegni e dipinti di Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, exhib. cat., Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 1959, nos. 18-9, 51, illustrated. Richard Krautheimer noted that the present sheet was close in style and composition to a drawing of the same subject in Janos Scholz's collection, now attributed to Antonio Molinari by Jacob Bean and Catherine Monbeig-Goguel. George Knox, in a letter dated 22 November 1980, also gave the present sheet to Molinari.